The Book of Kells
Written and painted at either the Columbian monastery of Iona or the Abbey of Kells in Ireland, the Book of Kells stands as a supreme example of one of Ireland's treasures from the 'Golden Age', the period about the 8th or 9th century when Irish creativity was manifest in epic poetry, metalwork, jewellery, enamelling, and manuscript illumination. The 340 surviving folia contain an incomplete Latin text of the Gospels. It is ornamented throughout with interlaced strapwork patterns and decorated initials depicting humans and animal forms. Since 1661, the Book of Kells (MS 58) has been in Trinity College, Dublin; it is certainly the most viewed manuscript in the world. This is a facsimile.